OIL giant Shell is selling a chunk of its advertising art collection - including the original front cover of Shell's Shilling Guide to Worcestershire.

The collection is expected to fetch £250,000 when it is auctioned at Sotheby's in London on Thursday, July 4.

The original artwork for the Worcestershire guide, by little-known artist Ian Henderson, is expected to attract bids of up to £400.

The ink and gouache picture is a montage of famous and familiar Worcestershire landmarks, symbols and figures.

Painted in 1963, the work features Worcester's cathedral, the county cricket ground, the Malvern Hills, Kidderminster carpets and Worcester china.

Shell commissioned this and other paintings for inclusion in Shell county guides, calendars and school wallcharts.

They were painted between 1950 and 1990, and were based around themes such as nature, animals, flowers and the counties of Britain.

The originals are not exhibited in public, and they are being sold to create a new exhibition of part of the collection in the National Motor Museum in Hampshire.

The shilling guides were designed to build on Shell's reputation for impressive artwork in the 1930s. The guides were sold in service stations, and consisted of 20 pages.

They contained a map of the area, as well as an essay about the landscape and history of the area, and details of the main towns and cities.

There were 48 of the guides, commissioned in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

"This painting should appeal to people from Worcester or someone who collects Ian Henderson's work," said Sotherby's art expert Freya Mitton.

"He is not one of the most well known artists to provide covers for the guides and this is one of the more reasonably priced paintings in the collection, but a lot of people will remember it from their youth.

"The guides aimed to encourage motorists to explore their surrounding area."